


May you Find Your Worth (In the Waking World)

by Up_sideand_down



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game), Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Blood Sharing, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Crossover, Death, Dreams and Nightmares, Lovecraftian Monster(s), M/M, Miscarriage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:34:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28925892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Up_sideand_down/pseuds/Up_sideand_down
Summary: A FF7/Bloodborne Crossover fic.When the world is so shaped by nightmares of human creation, it takes a Hunter to fight his way to the truth of what happened in the past...and who he really is.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	May you Find Your Worth (In the Waking World)

**Author's Note:**

> I warned about what I could, but if you have not played or seen Bloodborne, I really recommend looking into it. It is a very gory horror game and you should protect yourself. 
> 
> There is also a lot of lore attached to the game and if you get lost I also recommend using the wiki to find out more. 
> 
> I also don't really know where I'm going with this fic (what a surprise) but I like it so I'm posting it.

He had been the first to find the village. It was gentle rumors at first. A small fishing hamlet that had received some sort of blessing.

Or a curse. 

He too had mistaken the inhabitants for more victims of the beasts’ curse, but it didn’t take much to see that they were...different. 

These beasts didn’t utter foul curses or beg for blood ministration...beg to still be saved. It was as if...they didn’t want to be saved at all. Or had they been saved already. 

Sephiroth spared them as he walked the village alone. The Fishing Hamlet ignored him in kind. 

He followed them to _her_. 

And he knew it was a blessing

* * *

Cloud watched as Zack’s eyes returned back to their natural hue, the madness and blood lust leaving him. It was taking longer and longer each time now. Zack almost collapsed against Cloud, against his partner. 

“How long now until you don’t get me back?” Zack asked him, just shuddering breaths sounding less like laughter and more like sobs. 

“Don’t say that,” Cloud told him. They warned them. They warned the Soldiers not to get too close or attached to their partners. That everything was temporary, that you never knew who would turn mad or would turn to the Avalanche Crows to keep things in order. Cloud had never paid much heed to anything the ShinRa Church said. He was “the outsider” hunter, only placed with Zack so that Zack would keep him in line. 

How was it fair that Zack would be the first of them to fall? Zack was the more honorable between them. How was it fair that Zack got the only partner that wouldn’t give him a clean death? That Zack’s partner loved him more than any petty blood or trinkets? 

Cloud looked at Zack, at eyes that were getting tired, at hair that was growing too quickly to be natural, at his body that was hunched over with more than the burden of a holy sword. 

“I won’t lose you.”

* * *

Others followed Sephiroth. Genesis and Angeal. Angeal, head of the Church hunters, started his attack on the villagers before Sephiroth stopped him. Genesis noted that the corpses had the eyes Gast and Hojo so coveted. 

“There is something more,” Sephiroth told them, “more than a Kin.”

“No one has ever seen something more than a Kin to a Great One,” Genesis said, “and had the sanity to tell of it at least.”

“We shall see.” 

Sephiroth led them to the corpse. The sight of it shocked them to silence, but not yet to madness. They approached with reverence. Angeal and Genesis kneeled to inspect it more closely. 

“Her,” Angeal said. His touch was gentle over her head. She looked a woman shrouded in a blanket of scales. 

“One of their Shamans stated she washed on shore five years ago,” Sephiroth said, “she has not moved since.” Angeal picked up a worm from the ground. It wriggled helplessly in his palm. More were around the corpse, coming from it.

“Some of the ones we killed...these were inside of them,” Angeal said, “Parasites. Did they...eat them?” 

“Possibly,” Sephiroth said with a shrug. ShinRa had been searching for a Great One to commune with, to take blood from. It may be the same so long as they were given willingly. Angeal seemed to come to the same conclusion. 

“If she granted them these parasites, then she is the cause of their eyes as well,” Genesis said. 

“A dead Great One,” Angeal said, shaking his head, “it’s a shame.”

“This body is dead,” Sephiroth agreed, “but...she is waiting for the three.” Sephiroth could not explain how he knew that. He just knew.

* * *

“Please,” Cloud begged, “Please don’t leave him.” Hollander had turned him away. Now Amelia was his last hope. It was not often the Vicar went against the head of the church, but her eyes did soften. More and more of the Church was falling each day. Would she want this fate when it was her turn? 

“There is no blood to save him,” Amelia promised him, “but there can be sanctuary.” 

There had always been rumors about the Workshop beneath the Cathedral Choir. Sephiroth and Genesis had begun their work there before ShinRa took over. ShinRa thought it had been demolished in construction. 

“The stairs are there,” Amelia promised Cloud, “but I can promise nothing more.” She turned a blind eye as one fallen hunter was dragged away by another. 

“Wait,” Zack said, as they exited the Cathedral. An orange sunset lit the city and made it golden. Zack leaned against Cloud. They basked in their last sunset together before Zack’s last long night.

* * *

They had been there too long. Other Soldiers came, others with orders from Hojo and Gast. 

The Hamlet was razed, none left alive and no eyes left to rot. 

Sephiroth knew in an instant that what they did to the corpse...to Jenova...was wrong. 

“No,” he told them, “this has to stop.” But the words fell on deaf ears. 

_They are dying. The Three are dying. Mother my brothers are dying._

He felt the cry more than he heard it. The others did too. It was the pain of a sudden death. It was a mother’s mournful sob. It was something that _never should have happened_.

* * *

The Old Workshop was still there, lined with lumenflowers and lilies. An old house lit against the sky.

“A good place to go,” Zack told him. Cloud left him there. He ignored the idea that Zack had to... _go._

There had to be something. Something Angeal left behind before succumbing to his own bloodlust. Something Genesis found before he disappeared to Byrgenwerth. Something Sephiroth had before he just...left. 

He found it. His eyes didn’t believe it. 

_They did find a Great One_. 

It was only a part of the Umbilical cord...but it had to be enough...it had to be enough to make Zack a Kin. 

The Great Ones would not let a Kin go so easily. Zack was fighting with himself as the moon rose, but Cloud sat next to him, wouldn’t leave him ever. 

“Take it,” Cloud said holding it to him, “Zack...take it!”

* * *

Sephiroth wasn’t able to tell where he ended and Jenova began. The mourning of a Great One was too heavy to ignore. 

Jenova’s body had died...but it still housed three unborn great ones. The Orphan Triplets. And now...they were gone before they could ever draw breath. 

He was unsure if Jenova truly blamed him until he reached out. Her forgiveness washed over him. 

“Mother,” he told her, “I should have protected them.” Jenova’s voice sang out over the sea. He was not to blame. He had tried. 

He couldn’t see where his past began and Jenova ended...hadn’t Jenova always been there. Didn’t she...chose him to find her first. Hadn’t she always been calling to him. Her prodigal son, back at last...but too late to save his brothers.

Masamune clattered to the bottom of the well in the Hamlet center. He stared up at the moon, daring it to draw close. If the night didn’t end...then perhaps they could live. The Triplets could have a life...without the bloodlust of men. 

“A nightmare for them all,” he promised, “Their bloodlust will never end. But here...it’s just another dream. It’s just a dream, brothers...I won’t let them take you away. Yazoo, Loz, Kadaj...it’s just a dream. We never have to wake up again.” 

The three embraced him as Mother looked on.

* * *

Cloud gave Zack a chaste kiss as he settled him into the chair. Zack took his hand and kissed the palm. 

He was saved. The moon would never let him go so long as he was in the dream. 

“I’ll always be here,” Zack promised him, “I’ll always wait.”

“I’ll always come,” Cloud promised back. 

“Will you though,” Zack asked. Cloud knew what he was thinking of. He was thinking of bloodlust driving him mad, the hunt going on too long and Cloud forgetting who he was, a Crow cutting him off...or just Cloud giving up. 

“I will,” Cloud said, “I’ll always find a way.” 


End file.
